(TibetanReview.net, Sep28’23) – Back-channel talks exist between Tibetan representatives of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government, but they are not of such nature or progress as to warrant any exuding of hopes or public discussions, Sikyong (executive head) Penpa Tsering of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has said Sep 27.
Speaking in an interview with The Hindu newspaper in his office, Sikyong Penpa Tsering has said that the CTA backs the Dalai Lama’s call for a “Middle Way” solution that seeks more autonomy from China, but not independence, a statement that the spiritual leader repeated to journalists on Sep 25.
“We follow the Middle Way, and believe that a non-violent peaceful negotiated mutually beneficial lasting solution to Sino-Tibet conflict could contribute towards peace in South Asia. If Dalai Lama can return back with his followers to Tibet that would be one thorn removed, certainly for India and China as well,” Sikyong Penpa Tsering has said.
On the difficulty of getting China to come on board on the middle way platform, he has said, “Right now the Chinese are very suspicious…. So all I can say is we do have back-channels, beyond that I can’t say anything, as [these talks] haven’t moved beyond a certain stage where we would be comfortable to speak about it.”
The Tibetan community needs to prepare its younger generations for their struggle for rights to continue for possibly “30, 40, 50 years”, he has said.
When asked about discordant voices within the refugee community demanding the restoration of the independence campaign, Sikyong Penpa Tsering has said he was more concerned about Tibetans living inside Tibet at present, particularly pointing to China’s new schools in the region, that seek to erase any Tibetan cultural and religious education from the curriculum.
“China’s policy of the ‘colonial’ style boarding schools, turning every Tibetan into Chinese, that could also change the equation of the Tibetans inside Tibet towards India,” he has said, pointing to China’s new border security villages and recruitment of Tibetans into the Chinese army.
On the reincarnation of the 88-year-old Dalai Lama, for which China is particularly making preparations that are antithetical to the centuries-old Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Sikyong Penpa Tsering has said the Tibetan spiritual leader is expected to announce his decision in 2025, when he turns 90.
“The only document relating to [the Dalai Lama’s] reincarnation, or the next Dalai Lama is the September 2011 document, which says that when His Holiness reaches the age of 90, then he will consult and take some decisions [regarding succession],” he has explained, adding that the question over the succession worries authorities in Beijing who, he has added, “seem to be more worried about the [next] 15th Dalai Lama than the present one”.